Middle East expert Waiel Awwad on Monday claimed that the ongoing conflict in West Asia is disproportionately favouring wealthy nations such as the United States, arguing that war tends to widen the economic gap between rich and poor countries. He cited the increasing assets of US President Donald Trump as an example of how powerful individuals stand to gain during prolonged conflicts.
In an interaction with ANI, Awwad alleged that Trump is deliberately extending the war to serve the interests of his billionaire allies and align with the strategic objectives of Israel.
“You see, the problem is that the rich countries become richer in the wars and the poor countries become poorer. So you can see most of the countries all over the world, including the United States, people in the States are demonstrating against their government, against Trump, why he went for this war,” he said.
“So basically, Trump is trying to please the billionaire club that he surrounded himself with. You could see his assets, how they have been increased. You can see that he has been doing whatever the Prime Minister of Israel tells him to do. So he’s not finding any way out to come out,” he said.
Contrasting Narratives on Military Situation
Awwad also disputed Trump’s assertions about US military success against Iran. While the US leadership has claimed significant setbacks inflicted on Iranian forces, Awwad referred to reports emerging from Tehran that suggest a different picture on the ground.
According to him, there are claims that American troops attempted to enter Kharg Island—an important Iranian oil facility—but were captured, a development that has not been independently confirmed.
“Every day he’s having a rhetoric tweet or a press conference giving us different messages, and then suddenly we find that they’re sending more troops to the region, and they wanted to start some sort of a ground offensive. But as we get the news from Tehran, we have that Kharg trying to, had the commandos, the Marines have tried to get into Kharg Island, and they’ve all been captured. I mean, if that is the scene by the president of the United States, I think it’s not going to stop very soon. And I am afraid that with the Easter holiday coming up, he may be up to some dirty bomb that he wanted to create havoc in South Asia,” he said.
Concerns Over Escalation and Regional Impact
He further cautioned that the situation could intensify in the coming days, particularly around the Easter period, raising fears of covert operations or destabilising incidents that could extend beyond West Asia.
Awwad emphasised that Iran’s current posture reflects years of preparation following the Iranian Revolution, suggesting that the country is well-equipped for a prolonged confrontation.
“That’s exactly because the Iranians are prepared for long years ever since the Islamic revolution came and the Americans took an anti-Islamic government in Iran, and they have been having covert operations along with the Israelis. For the last two decades, more than 19,500 scientists and civil servants and politicians have been assassinated in Iran by covert operations of the Mossad and the CIA,” he said.
“So Iran has been preparing itself for an extensional war with the American and Israeli, that’s why we can see this systematic bombardment of the United States and Israel and like using the artificial intelligence now and they have been bombing almost 9,000 targets and now they say they have a bank of 15,000 targets,” Awwad added.
Awwad also argued that Washington’s efforts to bring Gulf nations together against Iran have not yielded the desired outcome, with several countries now reassessing the role of US military presence in the region.
“One can imagine that the war will prolong for so long on the other hand Iran is also retaliating very heavily against the American establishments in the region, American interests in the region, especially in the GCC and also inside Israel, where Iran threatened that they are going to retaliate by attacking universities inside Tel Aviv and American universities in the region because they have already attacked the universities in Iran, which is a clear indication that the war is coming beyond control. And what the American objective is to see that the Gulf countries join hands with the United States and Israel against Iran, which they are not doing so far, but the original war is very much imminent,” he said.
Gulf Nations Re-evaluate US Presence
He suggested that Gulf countries are increasingly questioning the utility of American bases, noting a shift where host nations appear to be safeguarding US installations rather than benefiting from their protection.
“I believe what you know most of the people think that the American bases in the region are meant to protect the GCC countries from any imminent attack, whether it was from Israel, where the Americans did nothing when Israel attacked Qatar and now from Iran, when Iran is attacking the American bases in these countries. But look at the scenario. It is now the Arab country defending the American bases in the country and not the Americans,” he said.
“So what the hell were the Americans doing with all these bases and military and personnel and all this equipment? They drained out the Arab countries with their money, and Trump is proudly saying he pulled out more than $5 trillion during his last visit to the region. So what the United States is doing is nothing but looting the money of the Gulf countries. And now they’re realising that it is high time. The Americans should pull out their military bases from the country, and regional powers should come together to find some sort of a solution among themselves, like, you know, a security arrangement or a kind of a pact that no attack on each other,” he said.
Earlier, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump maintained that Gulf countries remain firmly aligned with Washington and are actively responding to recent attacks.
“They are fighting back. Saudi Arabia is fighting back hard, Qatar is fighting back, the UAE is fighting back, Kuwait is fighting back, and Bahrain is fighting back. They’re all fighting back. Actually, they were surprised to be hit. I was very surprised they got hit. And once they got hit, they started fighting very well. We’re in very strong communications with all of those countries and they’ve all been fighting; they’re 100% on our side,” he said.